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book review

Yesterday as I was cleaning my bookshelves I came across one of my favorite books – ‘The fault in our stars’. It had been nearly two months since I didn’t read that book so I started reading and I was so hooked that I didn’t get up until I was finished reading it again (the reason I am still hesitant to give this book to anyone, even my cousin who was asking me about it two weeks ago. What can I say; I am just possessive about my books….). So, I thought even though it’s late to review this book I can at least share my thoughts about it. So here we go-

Though people like to classify this as a romantic story, I find it much more than that. It’s common to find stories where there are two beautiful, talented people, they come across each other accidently, fall in love with each other at first sight, fight their battles (which usually come in the form of their possessive ex) and live happily ever after. But this story is something which feels realistic most of the time. Where we mostly find stories of two complicated people with simple story, this is about two simple people with complicated lives.

The story is revolves around a teen girl Hazel, who has cancer from young age and has given up all hope on ever getting better. She comes across Augustus, who is a survivor of cancer. Throughout the journey there is a constant flow of sarcastic conversations between them which is quite refreshing in their depressing life situations.

There are some points in this book that I like the most. For instance, when Augustus asks them to write eulogy that they will say after his death. I always cry during this part. Even though not given in much detail, the depth of the situation cannot be ignored. We all know that we are going to die one day but we don’t always realize it, we all love to be independent and taking support of others sometimes often hurts our ego. But realizing that your days are numbered each and every moment and always having to take support of others even for most of minimal tasks is something no one wants their last memories to be; which are the emotions that we often come across in this story. Knowing that you won’t be able to live life to fullest like others is something no one wants but that’s what exactly the lead characters face.

The scene where Gus vomits all over his clothes or pees on his bed and is ashamed to show his face to Hazel depicts exactly what cancer makes its victim feel – helplessness. Cancer is a vicious disease that when once traps its victim sucks out his entire soul till its empty waiting for all of this to get over, to end this cycle of torture, of being burden on others, of being the cause of tears in their near and dear one’s eyes, of piercing a hole in the hearts that will leave a gap when the victim will leave this life, of painful memories that will continue to haunt their families till their existence.

I love this story because of the reality it shows. While we people take everything for granted and the most difficult thing we usually face is not getting a cab or bus on time to reach college or office, there are people in the world battling for every single breath they take, crossing every single day they live across calendars to see how many days they have left.
The story takes you on a roller coaster ride where you feel myriad of emotions from sad to happy to anxious to depressed and every emotion possibly known to humans. I can never see it as just a romantic story because it much more than that.

Truth to admit, even though I have a fairly simple life I feel sad at some points but seeing as the lead characters try to balance out everything to attain some sort of normalcy in their distraught lives and still getting courage to smile in order to make their families less sad is something we all can learn. I love this story because the lead characters are not depicted as too good looking, smart, perfect angels fallen from heaven but normal people like you and me who are weird, different in their own way and perfectly imperfect like us.

So friends, this is it. I hope you all liked it and please don’t hesitate to comment on it as it will help me improve and motivate.